Press Releases

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Forensic investigators said Friday that the body of a California man killed in southern El Salvador was so badly decomposed that they were unable to determine a cause of death.

On Thursday, police discovered the body of Mauricio Gonzalez, 68, a retired dental hygienist from San Ramon, Calif., in a well near his home outside a beach community 50 miles southeast of the capital San Salvador.

The body was covered with bags filled with garbage and sand, said Mario Hernandez, director of San Salvador’s Institute of Legal Medicine.

Hernandez said the body had been in the well for several days and had decomposed so much that a full autopsy was impossible.